POLICE REPORTEDLY HUNT BODIES OF 4 HOSTAGES

Police dug for bodies in a Kashmiri village Friday as they investigated claims that four Westerners kidnapped by Kashmiri separatists last year had been killed.

Rumors of the fate of the missing tourists -- an American, two Britons and a German -- have been rife since direct telephone and radio contact with their abductors was broken off in November.

The four were kidnapped in July while trekking in the Himalayan foothills of Jammu-Kashmir by separatists claiming to belong to a shadowy group called Al-Faran.

The latest tip about their fate came from a militant identified only as Nazir who said he was one of the kidnappers, officials said.

Nazir was captured by Indian forces last week near the town of Anantnag. He told interrogators he left Al-Faran a few months after the kidnapping but learned from other militants that the hostages were slain in December, the officials said.

They said police were digging Friday in a village near Anantnag, looking for bodies. But the government and police denied police are searching for dead hostages.

In New Delhi, the U.S. Embassy said it had heard the report about Nazir and the search near Anantnag.

The abductions began July 4. One other American managed to escape, and another hostage, Norwegian Hans Christian Ostro, was beheaded.